1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to a patient care and communication system which incorporates telephone communication therein. The system utilizes a PBX to provide staff-to-staff, staff-to-patient and/or external telephone communications. The system is also capable of performing tasks such as monitoring medical equipment in patient rooms and maintaining patient medical data; facilitating staff-to-staff or staff-to-patient visual and data communications; and tracking the location of staff members or patients to provide maximum patient care. More detailed descriptions of the staff-patient communications and the monitoring of the medical equipment is provided in application Ser. No. 08/033,287, filed Mar. 16, 1993 which is incorporated herein by reference. A more detailed description of the., system for tracking the location of personnel is provided in application Ser. No. 08/087,394, filed Jul. 2, 1993 and application Ser. No. 07/924,101, filed Aug. 3, 1992 both of which are incorporated herein by reference.
2. Description of the Related Art
In hospital or other health care environments, the nursing staff as well as other staff members are required to maintain and update patient information, provide patient care, and assist physicians in the treatment of patients. Often, these tasks have to be performed even though there are personnel shortages. Further, as medical technology continues to develop to provide treatment for a greater number of medical conditions, the volume of information that is maintained for each patient continues to grow rapidly. As a result, stress on the nursing staff has increased and information overload is fast approaching.
To more fully understand the above problem relating to health care, consider the types of data which are maintained for an individual patient. Typically, the staff members need to know the patient's name and address as well as any special dietary, environmental or physical space requirements of the patient. The attending physician or nursing staff may want to know the patient's condition, medical history and recent vital sign data. If the patient has had any diagnostic tests such as x-rays or ultrasound images made at the hospital, or at any other hospital, the attending physician may want to compare these test results with the results of newer tests to see how the patient's condition has progressed. In addition, if any medication has been prescribed, the physician or nursing staff may want to know the identity of the medication, when the last dose was taken and how the patient has complied with the dosage schedule.
Current systems utilized to manage such information includes the manual writing and processing of the information. Electronic systems utilized to process and store the information involve multiple computers, each configured to process portions of the vast amount of information. To obtain all the information in one place the information stored in each computer system must be manually combined. Furthermore, such electronic systems do not provide visual displays of text at stations provided in the patient's room, at the nurse control station or at stations provided in areas of the health care facility frequently occupied by the health care personnel.
In addition to processing the above information, the nursing staff attending to a number of patient's rooms may want to have some indication of each patient's condition at nursing stations which are far removed from the patient's bed. For example, if the patient has been admitted for a heart condition, it would be helpful if any recent vital signs that may indicate the onset of a heart attack could be displayed at the nurses station when the patient presses a call button.
One such system described in U.S. Pat. No. 4,835,372 to Gombrich et al. relates to a patient identification system for relating items with patients and for ensuring that an identified item corresponds to an identified patient. The system includes a computer system interconnected to a plurality of remote terminals by conventional telephone wiring. A RP modem provides for transmission and reception of RF signals to and from a bar code reading device, and the RF modem provides for transmission and reception of signals via existing telephone wire to and from the computer system using data over voice technology.
Another problem faced by care givers and by hospital administrators is determining the location of key personnel and equipment. In an emergency or during periods of personnel shortages, the ability to quickly locate an attending physician or other staff member to provide maximum patient care is desirable. Moreover, when special equipment is required to treat an emergency condition or when a ward of a hospital is experiencing personnel shortages, it is desirable that the equipment be quickly located to reduce the time spent to locate the equipment.
One type of system utilized to locate personnel within a hospital or other health care facility relies on audio paging systems, sign-in and sign-out sheets and broadcast paging systems. In a given situation, the audio paging system would be tried first. This system may not be effective if the person to be located is in an area where the paging system is not functioning properly or has been turned down, or if the person has left the hospital. After an unsuccessful audio page, the sign-in and sign-out sheets may be checked. If, however, the person to be located forgot to use the sign-in sheet or sign-out sheet, critical time may be lost in a second attempt to use the audio paging system. In addition, a search of the sign-in and sign-out sheets may require more time than is available in an emergency situation.
When the person to be located is outside of the hospital, broadcast paging systems are often the best way to convey an important message. These systems require the individual trying to locate the person to call the paging service, leave a message, wait for the paging service to send the message to the individual's pocket pager and then wait for the person being paged to call the paging service, receive the message and respond.
Another type of currently used locator system utilizes either radio frequency signals or infra-red signals to communicate the position of a mobile individual or object to a network of stationary transceivers. One such system, the InfraCom locating and signaling system available from United Identification Systems Corp. is designed for use in a hospital environment. Using this system, a network of infra-red transceivers located throughout a hospital can both transmit data to and receive data from a portable badge worn by hospital personnel or attached to the equipment to be located. This badge transmits a programmed identification signal to the network allowing the position of the badge to be indicated on a display of the floor plan of the hospital.
Another exemplary system, the TELOC PLUS personnel locator system available from Teloc, Inc., also uses two-way infra-red signaling to communicate the position of a portable badge in a stationary transceiver. In addition, the Tcloc system may be coupled to a private branch exchange (PBX) to allow telephone calls from an individual to be routed to the telephone that is closest to the badge or to. direct an intercom message to that telephone, thus providing an alternative to an audio paging system. Each of these systems is limited in the type of information that may be conveyed between the stationary transceiver network and the transceiver on the badge. In the described systems, only identification information providing an indication that switches, which are located on the badge have been activated, may be transmitted from the badge. Furthermore, if the transceiver on the badge fails or is damaged, a blank badge must be programmed to take its place. This program operation may be time consuming, leaving the individual or the piece of equipment invisible to the locating system for that period of time.
Therefore, a need exists for a patient care and communication system which integrates a staff locating system with a system which facilitates visual and data communications between staff members and patients and which maintains patient data. A need also exists for a patient care and communication system which utilizes a private-branch exchange to provide staff-to-staff, staff-to-patient and/or external communications. The present invention provides a patient care and communication system which provides communications through a PBX and which is capable of performing tasks such as monitoring medical equipment in patient rooms and maintaining patient medical data, facilitating voice, visual and data communications between staff members and the patients, as well as a system for tracking staff members to provide maximum patient care.